post-Christmas update

Our quilt guild typically has a featured speaker at each monthly meeting and then the following day is a workshop where either a specific technique is taught, or perhaps we start or even finish a pattern that the individual has designed. Debbie Maddy was the speaker earlier this year so I signed up for her class the next day because this looked like a fun quilt. We got quite a bit of it completed during the class, with the easier blocks to finish at home. The basic concept is a block is made, sliced up in different ways and then put back together.

Except I didn’t. Finally I finished up the semester and had some free time and I was determined to knock out at least 2 quilt tops. This one was the one that was closest to completely done so I finished it up. It may be March or later before I quilt it though since I want to practice quilting some more. I’ll probably take it to our machine quilting bee for some ideas.

And we had snow a couple of weeks or so ago! That rarely happens, and when it does it sure doesn’t stick. It did this time, about midnight. I was actually already in bed, but our daughter woke me up because I just had to see this!

I wasn’t too enthused with the idea since I’ve seen my fair share of snow in my lifetime, but we went outside in the middle of the night and had a big snowball fight and then made a pretty sad looking snowman. Our son had school in the morning and that afternoon when he got home, he said the school spent the first 3 periods of school outside playing. I thought that was pretty nice of them – I’m sure they realized no one was going to get any work done anyway!

I had invited my sister to my house for Christmas. I hadn’t really given it any thought that the crew would end up growing to 9 people. At the time, both grown children had plans at their respective homes but the next thing I knew, both of her children and two grandchildren were headed our way.

I remembered I had a Christmas stocking die from AccuQuilt for my studio cutter and wow was that ever fast! I lined the inside of them which they thought was the greatest thing ever that they had a “two-sided stocking”. I just didn’t want the raw seams to sew and it was easier to line them than to do French seams around all those curves. I also quilted their names on each one. It was a big hit except for the youngest who I thought really loved the color pink but it turns out she loves purple. Oops!

And this last one has all the blocks made but is still being pieced together. This is a sampler by Amy Ellis from her Modern Heritage book. I had also started this one earlier in the year. Her sampler ends up at 66″ x 78″ but I wanted something a little larger than that, so I’ve added 2″ finished strips throughout to gradually add in more white space. I could’ve made another column but that wasn’t going to help me get this one over the finish line. There is another row across the bottom and a third column to this so it’s only about half pieced but hopefully I’ll knock this out tomorrow.

That leaves me with 2 more quilts to finish that I started. I may get one of those done but not both. I need to get better about balancing my time. I finished up the semester with 3 A’s and literally .13% or something goofy shy of an A in the last class. That basically amounted to one wrong answer on one quiz in the entire semester. I was not too excited about that. Apparently an A – isn’t the same as an A. Hmph!

I had deliberately made hers pink because for some reason I was sure that was her favorite color. The reaction her face was so funny I couldn’t help but laugh! I might make her a purple one for her birthday in February!